Rice Farmer

Chronicling the decline of industrial civilization

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Behind 9/11

Those who still harbor doubts about oil being the primary object of US intentions in the Middle East (and elsewhere) should read Oil and Empire, a short article that expertly sums up the vital importance of oil and why everybody is desperate to get it. Although the CounterPunch editors still hold on to the fiction that 9/11 was not an inside job, this article alone reveals a powerful motive for staging this attack and blaming it on Muslim extremists. This blog too has noted some of the many revelations which show that taking over Middle East oil fields was planned long ago.

When you look at 9/11 closely, you almost feel like saying “hats off” to such a brilliantly planned and executed job. While being primarily for oil, 9/11 also serves other interests. For example:

• It satisfies the Zionist lobby and Israel. There is no gainsaying the pressure put on the US government by the Zionist lobby to attack Arab countries.• Drugs. Going after UBL in Afghanistan and claiming that the Taliban had to be taken out of power because they harbored him was a great cover story. In reality, the Taliban had to be toppled because they had nearly wiped out poppy production — an unpardonable sin in a world economy heavily dependant on dirty drug money.• Taking control of oil would mean guaranteed fat profits for US oil companies, especially in the face of peak oil.• It creates an external evil enemy (Arabs/Muslims) against which to rally the populace. It is important for leaders to have an “other” and bogeymen like UBL to constantly whip up fear among the populace and deflect the people’s attention from the fact that their own government is screwing them. Color-coded alerts are a convenient tool for manipulating the fear level.• It creates a state of perpetual war (“a war that won’t end in our lifetime”), which means a perpetual gravy train for the “defense” industry.• It was the excuse to set up the Department of Homeland Security to further bleed the people and fatten the coffers of “contractors.”• Insider trading on 9/11 made millions for connected people.

And so on. 9/11 has been a bonanza in a number of ways, and that’s the way it was planned.

Further, the Bush regime has staved off scrutiny and criticism by accusing those who ask questions of “giving aid and comfort to the enemy” and breeding an uncompromising “us or them” climate in which you are either with Bush or the terrorists. This appeal to phony patriotism and the branding of those who disagree as “terrorist sympathizers” acts to scare people into approved thought patterns. Those who do dare to investigate 9/11 meet with ridicule (an effective weapon) or other pressures, while the government desperately dodges lawsuits and questions. How to handle these problems had to be well thought out ahead of time.

Clearly, 9/11 was planned well in advance. The lining up of patsies, the creation of the “evil other,” the mechanics of the crime (war games, funding, etc.), the cover-up, the bonanza of benefits for connected people and corporations, and most of all, the oil — all this was meticulously conceived as an organic whole.

Talk Is Cheap: Christian Values in America

AFPreports that nine in 10 Americans believe in God, and fully 82% of them profess to be Christian. What a crock of baloney! Talk is certainly cheap. If more than eight in 10 Americans are “Christian,” then why are the so-called “Christian values” of love, forgiveness, charity, the Ten Commandments, and the like not reflected in the way Americans treat each other or people in other countries? Millions of Americans are without decent jobs (or without jobs at all), don’t have enough to eat, have lost or are about to lose their homes, cannot afford medical care, live in squalor, depend on the kindness of a foreign country for heating fuel, and are otherwise sorely neglected by their own government and society. Abroad, hate and distrust of the US increase with each passing day.

If Americans really did live by the words of Jesus, the US and the world would be much different. In reality, being “Christian” in the US, except for a very few individuals, is nothing more than hypocritical posturing used to place a veneer of righteousness over the most disgusting behavior and heinous crimes.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Castro on Biofuels

Say what you want about Fidel Castro, but his statementattackingbiofuels is spot-on. At a time when world grain reserves are declining, the biofuel craze is already beginning to take food from the mouths of the poor. Someone has to speak up about the ethicality of starving the poor of food to feed the cars of the rich, and too few people in the rich countries are.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Israel to Propagandize with Eye Candy

Are you having trouble convincing people that your murderous, brutal, apartheid regime is actually a cool place? Leave it to Israel to find a way. They will get a magazine to run a feature chock full of sexy Israeli babes and improve their image among “males from the age of 18-35,” the segment that seems to have the biggest problem “understanding” Israel.

But don’t get the idea the Israelis invented this below-the-belt tactic. You can find hard-right political commentary presented by American females who, I think it is safe to say, hope that lots of men will listen to their messages with their eyes instead of their ears and brains.

When you can’t depend on logic and the facts to sell your case, get out the eye candy. It’s a cheap trick, but it works.

Gonzales Wants It Both Ways

The Bush administration seems to think little of the Constitution, but now an aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (who said the Geneva Conventions are “quaint”) will be taking the Fifth before a Senate panel. It just goes to show that elites can have their cake and eat it, too. Gonzales also walked out of a press conference early when pressed for answers on the attorney firing scandal. What are they hiding? If they are really interested in accountability as Gonzales claims (“I believe in keeping accountability”), and if they are really innocent of wrongdoing as they portray themselves, why run from the press and why take the Fifth?

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Obama Knuckles under Like the Rest

What’s the difference between BarackObama and his Democratic brethren? Other than being Black, apparently there isnone. I suppose it’s normal for people to hope that a woman or a minority will clean house, change things, and give us all hope again. But there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between any of the big candidates, including Obama. They are all owned and operated by the corporations and the Zionist lobby. They compete with each other to see how many kowtows a minute they can perform. Meanwhile, the pleas of the people go unheeded and unanswered as the candidates join the bloodthirsty chorus for more war and killing. Sadly, Obama too has been totally co-opted and compromised, and is now a member in good standing of the American War Party, Neoliberal Branch.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Al Gore Makes Excuses for Auto Industry

We’ve all heard about Al Gore’s hypocritical lifestyle, and now the famed green politician tells us that cars are “only a slice of the problem.” Which is true, but that doesn’t excuse a highly polluting industry that has consistently bellyached about fuel efficiency and pollution-control rules, and has kept making and selling monster vehicles. How Al Gore can keep feeding us this elitist crap and sleep well at night is beyond me. Clearly, being an elite means discarding any sense of what’s decent and right.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Academic Inertia

In various ways, I sort of keep tabs on what is going on in academia, or at least in certain fields. One thing that always impresses me, mostly negatively, is the inertia that keeps academics going in the same direction even though they should be changing course. But like everyone else, when you invest a lot of time, energy, and money in a certain thing, you naturally don’t want to start throwing that away. There are some dumb academics, of course, but in my experience, by and large they are an intelligent, perceptive lot who work hard to keep up on developments in their fields of specialty, and other trends in general.

When new information suggests that what we’ve believed until now will no longer obtain in the not-too-distant future, it’s time to at least consider changing course because our assumptions no longer hold. Yet, inertia just keeps people going in the same direction.

A case in point is peak oil. I know academics who are doing fine work, but it’s based on the assumption that oil production and consumption are going to keep on rising for decades to come. So, they have all these solutions, based on this assumption, for what ails the petroleum civilization. Under this assumption about oil, their proposed solutions are imaginative and at least worth serious consideration.

Naturally, I talk to them about peak oil, and show them the evidence. They express surprise, profess to understand the gravity of the situation, and talk about incorporating this into their research. But when I next look to see what kind of research they are putting out, I can see that their assumption hasn’t changed at all. Everybody is human, and when people are confronted with an item of significant information which negates everything they’ve done to date, the natural reaction is to ignore that information, or rationalize it away.

Naturally, this does no one any good, and in fact exacerbates the problem. Stick-in-the-mud researchers are in effect advocating solutions to improve a system that is about to have the rug pulled out from under it. Academics need to tailor their research — or perhaps even drastically revamp it — to accommodate the brave new world of energy scarcity and all that it entails.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Divestment from Israel

AIPAC wants states to divest from Iraq. AIPAC’s executive director is quoted as saying, “If the largest state pension funds in the country were to divest from companies with ties to Iran, it would have a devastating effect on Iran’s economy.” Perhaps so. But what is the reason? The Zionist lobby and its minions would have us believe that Iran is dangerous and needs to be brought to heel. But realistically, which country is really dangerous? It is the country that is bristling with nuclear weapons (made under a clandestine program), that steals its neighbor’s land, and that runs a brutal apartheid regime. If US states want to make the world a better place through divestment, they should start by pulling their money out of Israel, which is the real “regime that threatens the safety of our world.”

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Straining Credulity, Again

Bwa ha ha ha! The US government has again issued an absolutely incredible story from a “confessed terrorist,” this time from the hated, feared, and legendary Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who appears to have been planning or involved in just about every horrible terrorist plot and bit of intrigue you can imagine, and then some. The man is a veritable terrorist Superman. I won’t write any more about it, as Kurt Nimmo has a pithy comment here. Also check out Larry Chin’s analysis here.

Addendum: Larisa Alexandrovna has pointed out another gaping hole in the story given by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (or whoever has made this story up).

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Metal Theft and the Olympic Games

Countries around the world are plagued by metal theft. One reason for this, as seen in the dismantling of infrastructure, is that the petroleum civilization is beginning to fall apart. People not only find metal theft profitable, they also don’t see as much value in existing infrastructure any more.

Japan too has had a rash of metal thefts. Just during the months of January and February, there were 1,756 reported incidents. But there’s also a big profit motive: the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Olympic games are well known for their attendant commercial exploitation and environmental damage, but they also gobble up land and resources, and steal people’s homes and land. Some of the metal being stolen in Japan is reportedly going to China for construction of facilities for the 2008 Beijing games.

There are many good reasons to discontinue the Olympic games, and this is another.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Halliburton Moves to Dubai

Do you still think the US is not interested in getting Middle Eastern oil? Do you still believe that the US attacked Iraq only to satisfy Israel? As if you needed more proof that the US is planning a long-term stay in the region to get the oil, we now find that oil giant Halliburton is moving its corporate headquarters to Dubai! I rest my case.

Bush Twins on the Front Lines?

You have to wonder why the Bush twins, Barbara and Jenna, are not out on the front lines in Iraq, and why their father does not demand the same sacrifice of them as he demands from the children of lesser Americans. OK, maybe they don’t agree with their father’s war. But what’s wrong with asking them? As part of the First Family, their opinions should be just as public as everyone else’s, if not more so. If they answer no, then fine. Let them do their thing out of harm’s way. But if they answer yes, then they should be pressured — most of all by their own father — to don uniforms, grab their rifles, and get out on the battlefield with other Americans.

Elites should practice what they preach, and make the same sacrifices as they demand of the Little People.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Abort a Fetus, the Terrorists Win

Former Democratic Senator Zell Miller claims that since 1973 the US has aborted 45 million babies, which would have been defending the country. In other words, Miller wants American women to pump out lots of babies to fill the ranks with cannon fodder. Which is exactly the official policies adopted by fascist states before and during World War II. Can you imagine people who openly advocate having babies that will be fated to die or be horribly maimed for Empire? This man needs help.

Miller also said that those aborted babies would be “filling our jobs,” which is a laugh and a half. What jobs, pray tell? The US economy is in a terminal downward spiral, thanks to which the already existing 300 million people can’t find decent jobs, or can’t find any jobs. Poverty is on the rampage. Miller wishes that 45 million more people would be added to aggravate this situation.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

US Dollar: Pariah Currency

Don’t say you never saw it coming. Countries around the world have had it with the Greenback, and are starting to cash in their chips. In fact, some countries have already outlawed the use of the US dollar. Blowback against the Empire? You be the judge. But get ready for a crash.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

US Military's New Weapon: Puke Beam

We’ve all heard about the microwave weapon that makes people feel as though they are on fire. Now comes what might be called a “vomit beam,” something that can even penetrate walls to incapacitate people inside a room or building. Ultimately, we know who will be on the receiving end of such weapons.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Cashing in on Africa

I’ve noted AFRICOM’s real purpose, which is quite obvious, but here is a perceptive article that lays it out in more detail, and from a Black perspective. There is going to be a lot of suffering and death, a lot of rank exploitation, and much destruction and pollution. Don’t say you never saw it coming.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Obama Vies for Position of Chief Zionist Lackey

Lest you still had any doubts that BarackObama is still in the running to be the next POTUS, he has made it abundantly clear that he will try to lick more Zionist boots than the other candidates. As usual, the candidates are tripping over one another to see who can be Israel’s biggest sycophant, and Obama is certainly showing his mettle in that area. Stay tuned to the campaign as the candidates continue to grovel for dirty Zionist money. Can Obama ingratiate himself more than the other candidates? Can he become the biggest Zionist lickspittle? The competition is tough, but he’s certainly giving it a good try!

Friday, March 02, 2007

Going for the Oil

Despite the claims of blind-man pundits who still think that the US is not after Iraq’s and Iran’s oil, all indications are otherwise. What’s more, this is part of a pattern. Africa has oil, and the US has just announced that it will form a new military command for Africa called AFRICOM. And the latest revelation, from Wayne Madsen, is that the US appears to have initiated “a major military move into Southeast Asia” to get the oil discovered in the Gulf of Thailand (scroll down to March 1 entry; article also appears here). Wherever there are significant oil reserves that might be up for grabs, expect to see the US military.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Show Me Your Papers

America moves farther down the road toward a show-me-your-papers society with the publication of the Real ID rules. With what amounts to an internal passport, the authorities will have a much easier time tracking the movements of citizens. The requirement to submit all sorts of personal documents allows the government to considerably beef up its TIA database. And this is just one of the many totalitarian initiatives made possible by 9/11. According to the article,

Homeland Security officials point to the 9/11 hijackers’ ability to get driver’s licenses in Virginia using false information as justification for the sweeping changes.

Starting with their visa applications, there are many things the hijackers (patsies) would not ordinarily have been able to do, and getting driver’s licenses is likely another one of them. 9/11 is the excuse to justify all manner of Big Brother-like changes to society.